estoria | « 004 ⇢ INTERLUDE004.EXE »

Entry tags:

!event,
!interlude

« 004 ⇢ INTERLUDE004.EXE »

Who: These suckers and E R R O R
When: OOC: 5/29, IC: 7/15
Where: CERES Research Tower and Beyond
What: It seems an old friend has decided the situation is progressing too slowly.
Rating/Warning: PG-13: Violence, injuries and inevitable deaths.

▶ ACTION.EXE | IC: 7/15

For those unlucky saps who disappear today, ranging from early in the morning towards the middle of the afternoon, well...they can't be reached by CereVice.

Any attempt to do so will bounce back the message User Currently Occupied.

It's an odd message, and one that's never been used by the CereVice. How strange. It's probably nothing though, right? No contact can be established between groups or from groups to outside people in Cerealia, whether by technology or magic. You're cut off from everyone but those in your groups, now.

Otherwise, all abilities will remain intact.

As for the people who do disappear, well... things get a little hairy really quickly.

▶ RUN.EXE | MOD NOTES

This is the event log for these sign-ups! Your groups have been sorted below; here are a few handy links for you:

Group 01 | OOC plotting
Group 02 | OOC plotting
Group 03 | OOC plotting
Group 04 | OOC plotting
Group 05 | OOC plotting
Group 06 | OOC plotting
Group 07 | OOC plotting
Group 08 | OOC plotting
Group 09 | OOC plotting
Group 10 | OOC plotting
Group 11 | OOC plotting
Group 12 | OOC plotting
Group 13 | OOC plotting
Group 14 | OOC plotting
There is no tagging order, so feel free to tag in whatever way works best for you as a group.

The characters should not ICly be gone longer than 5 hours -- if they survive, of course. There will be mod involvement in each of the threads.

If there are any questions, feel free to ask them here. Please try to avoid asking hypothetical questions (such as "What will happen if my character does [action]?") as that's part of the fun and risk of the interlude! You are welcome to plot with your groupmates in this post. Thank you!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[As Raven fires his arrows, she's already unsheathing her sword and hurrying towards the creature. The only bright side to the fact that it has his arm, perhaps, is that it's paying attention to him and not to her. It leaves her free to aim for it's neck, striking hard to (hopefully) dig the blade deep into the creature. If she manages that, she'll tug on the hilt of her sword hard, trying to make the wound long as well as deep. As she does so, she calls back to Togami and Iris—]

Stay back!

[She and Raven can handle this, she thinks, and she doesn't want them to approach and become injured or worse given their lack of fighting skill.]

[ Even though the knife is unique and might have some special properties, it does seem silly to jump into that chaos when Adelina and Raven are busy dealing with that already. So Togami doesn't feel too bad ignoring Iris's command. ...And he doesn't feel bad ignoring Adelina's either. No one can tell Byakuya Togami what to do!1

Still, he doesn't get in the way. He keeps his distance, but while they're distracting the monster, he paces around it, looking for any exposed vulnerabilities or abnormalities around the side and back ends that might be a convenient target.

He doesn't explain himself out loud. That would be way too helpful. ]

[Raven's usually a lot smarter about keeping his distance, but the monster's far too fast for him, and he feels the sharp, lancing pain up his arm before he can react. Fortunately his bow is metal and not wood, so it offers some resistance against the monster's jaws... not that it stops the thing from sinking its teeth into him.

Gritting his teeth -- he's experienced worse than this, he can manage -- he draws the knife from his belt with his free hand, and attempts to plunge it into the creature's eyesocket. Even if it doesn't kill it, it might force it to let go.]

[ With the dual strike of a dagger through the eye and a sword through the back of its neck, the monster manages a few death throes before it falls, slumping to the ground without a sound. Raven will still have his arm, at least, but it's not in great shape; the monster's teeth bit down to the bone.

And just like that, everything is quiet again. ]

[Well...somebody stabbed it, so that was good enough. Especially since the creature seemed to fall still. Possibly dead--no, hopefully dead.]

Are you...?

[Keeping a close eye on the prone creature laying on the ground, she approached and took a good look at Raven's arm. It wasn't pretty.]

We should bandage that at once. [In a place like this, infection seemed almost inevitable. She glanced around back at the others.] Does anybody have any space cloth I can use?

[She pulls her sword out of the monster, using it to carefully cut off one of her sleeves, revealing some light burn scars on her arm. She can get more clothing later; this is more important. She hands it to Iris, sheathing her sword as she does, before turning her attention to Raven.]

I'm so sorry. Will you be alright?

[Since it's clear to see he isn't alright now.]

Hmph. That was fast...

[ He's not really the first aid type, and they seem like they're handling that part already. While they're doing that, he'll keep inspecting the monster now that it's not moving anymore, to see if there's anything worth noting or taking. ]

Thank you...

[While the others continue to speak, Iris set to work taking the strip of fabric and moving to wrap it around Raven's wound. Fingers swift with a practiced movement. Like she had wrapped many similar wounds in the past ~~though, perhaps, none so severe~~.]

[As soon as the monster goes down, the bow slips from his grasp, and if anything, Raven looks more concerned for the blooded and damaged state of the bow more than his own mangled arm. What would its original owner think to it?

Maybe the shock is already making him zone out...

Iris's attention finally forces him to concentrate on his own predicament. Even if he feels weirdly distanced from the situation, his arm is starting to tremble, but he tries his best to hold it steady while she tends to it. That sure is a lot of blood.]

Now, ladies... I don't think ya should be lookin' at a nasty thing like this... Heh heh...

[The strain is evident in his voice, but almost getting his arm chewed off isn't enough to stop another halfhearted wisecrack.]

You don't have to worry about me. I've seen much worse.

[It was a half-hearted murmur caught up in her concentration. Thinking not of any nonfatal wound she had previously dressed...but the still form of Mystic Misty. Just moments before she had...]

[There was so much blood. Too much for what she had now to suffice. She would have to apply a lot more pressure. And she needed more fabric.]

[Tieing off what she already had, Iris then bent down and did her best to tear some of the bottom of her own hem. The material was thick--meant to withstand winter weather, after all--so she had to use one of the arrow tips in order to get a good tear started. From there, she managed a decent strip roughly three inches in thickness. With this, she got back up again and added it to her makeshift bandage.]

Fear not. I have seen worse.

[But since Iris has his arm handled, she's going to take this opportunity to go back to the locked door, trying to see if there's any way to open it and chewing on her bottom lip absentmindedly. After a moment, she gives it a sharp knock and calls out.]

Can you hear us? Are you safe in there?

[There is, of course, no answer.]

[Raven remains largely stoic as Iris adds the thicker material to his arm. Instead, he watches as Adelina goes over to the door, which is a distraction from his own predicament. If Sapphire isn't answering, things could be a lot worse on the other side of that door...]

Kid...! Damn... [He frowns, trying to focus.] Maybe I could try blowin' the door down with some artes? Or if we find another way in...

[He trails off. It's getting harder to concentrate on coming up with ideas, so he might be useless for a little while.]

[ He calls out without looking over. ] We haven't gone further down the hall. That will probably be quicker than focusing on the door itself. If nothing else, we might find something useful for breaking it down.

[Once her second knot around Raven's arm was tied and secured, Iris moved to stand. Her gaze altered between her three current companions and the door. Until now, there had been no answer from beyond, but...that didn't have to mean anything was wrong, right?]

We don't know what's directly behind the door. If we try to blow it out...we might risk more people getting hurt.

There must be a...a beam or something around here. Something we could use to smash it down.

[She gives a short pause, thinking it over, before nodding.]

Let us move on and see if we can locate something that could help, then.

[She's fairly worried by this point about what they might find on the other side of that door, but there's no point in voicing that. Better to devote herself to something productive. She glances at Raven; with him injured, it's probably best not to split up again.]

Do you have strength enough to walk?

[She suspects someone might have to help him along, depending on how much blood he's lost from the wound.]

[ Togami's going to find that a) the monster's blood is a strange, dark green color and b) there's a tag on it.

The tag's number reads N53324.

With the monster dead, they're able to pull themselves together for as long as they need, at least; for poor Raven, even with the bleeding staunched, he's going to find it hard to get himself together. There's going to be a pretty strong sense of vertigo, which is going to worsen over the course of the next ten minutes until he can no longer stand up.

There was probably something in the monster's saliva. ]

"N53324". [ He reads the tag aloud, before trying to cut it off with the knife, so that he can keep it for later.

After that, he stands up and starts to walk down the hallway. If someone's gonna help support Raven along the way, it's not going to be him. ]

Thanks. [He addresses that to Iris, and once she's finished, he goes to pick up his bow. He'd thought he was a little lightheaded at first just from the blood loss, but reaching to pick it up is when the room lurches, the vertigo really becoming obvious.

He manages to snap the weapon into sword form and reattach it to his belt, but he's suddenly struggling to orient himself. He holds his head, dazed.]

Uh... Sorry to be a pain, folks, but this old man might need helpin' along...

[The fact that he's actually apologetic about it and not using it as an excuse to be weird should indicate he's serious about it, at least?]

[Serious or no, Iris could tell that he was in need of some assistance. So she offered hers, wordlessly slipping her arm around his waist and allowing him to lean his weight on her. Weight that she...will surprisingly be able to carry with far less difficultly than one might assume for a girl her size.]

It's alright. I've got you.

[She turned back towards Byakuya, brows furrowed.]

Does that mean anything to you?

[She assumes just that, automatically stepping forward to help Iris — before pausing as she realizes the other girl can handle it on her own. She nods at her in approval before walking forward the way Togami is headed, looking for another door they can enter to explore.]

[ He keeps walking, but he turns his head enough to be heard, addressing Iris's question. ] It doesn't ring a bell, but it might mean something to someone else.

By the way, I believe the knife was found in one of the desks.

You're too kind, darlin'.

[He mumbles it under his breath, not even having the energy to really flirt any more even when she puts her arm around him. He puts his good arm across her shoulders to help steady himself, but he won't try to put too much weight on her yet, not wanting to be too much of a burden on her.

That'll change once the vertigo starts getting worse, though. He'll listen to the conversation as attentively as he can, but he doesn't contribute, concentrating on not keeling over and slowing them down as little as possible.]

. . . NEW FILE CREATED . . . CHECKPOINT #001.SAV . . .
. . . CONTINUING ESCAPE.EXE. . .

[ Now that the band's all back together (with the exception of poor ol' Sapphire there), they'll be able to walk in relative peace for a while. Down the hall they'll go until they come across a door, half ajar and with a bright blue light shining out from it. There doesn't seem to be anywhere else to go but into that room and when they do, it'll become obvious why this room is the final stop in this hall.

It's a large conference room with computers at every station and a large bright blue map on the screen taking up the entire wall. While the language the maps reads is entirely in Cerealian, it'll be easy enough to read with their translators. The map on the screen is labeled as "Tellus", a bright blue dot in the center is equally labeled as "Cerealia". To the side of the map and on the screen are different readings of what is clearly marked as energy. Three different categories are listed there: Spirit, Artificial, Natural. The "spirit" category in particular is very, very high compared to the other readings.

After that, they're free to poke around in this room as they please. Nothing will immediately jump out at them. Take a break, catch your breath, put your feet up -- you're fine for now. ]

It's the least I could do to help.

[And then silence prevailed. For a time. Until they reached that room, and Iris' eyes went wide at the sight of the map. The language...for some reason, she could read it. And recognize that name in the middle. Cerealia. That was...the name of the city they'd been staying in, wasn't it. And those readings--]

Just like the papers we found.

[The ones talking about different energy levels. She still had a few of them tucked away in her uniform.]

The spirit levels...oh, I wish Mystic Maya were here. [In spite of the danger.] She...she would know better about the spirits than I. Maybe even be able to contact one of them.

How very interesting...

[She looks all around the room as they enter, making sure it's clear of any danger before turning to the map. After reading over it for several moments, she looks around the room for paper and something to write with, hoping to be able to make a copy.]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

▶ CHECKPOINT ONE.SAV

no subject

no subject